Daniel Hudson: A lesson in civics is needed

Published 5:05 pm, Monday, March 19, 2012

Polls show more people register Independent than Democrat or Republican. Thus, they cannot help select candidates, develop policy positions, or join the organizational structure of a major party.

Disillusioned with both major parties, some advocate a Third Party. A third party has never elected a president, never a majority in either house of Congress, and only a handful of state or local officials.

At best, third parties have given focus to specific issues that might then have been taken up by one or both of the major parties.

A third party presidential candidate has denied a major party candidate the majority of the popular vote, but never a majority of the electoral vote which is what is required to elect a president.

People say with pride, "I vote for the person, not the party." The individual in Congress has no influence until he builds seniority, and unless his party holds the majority.

When Republicans gained control, Shays, despite his seniority, was marginalized because he was more progressive than the dominant conservative wing of the Republican Party.

In the 2010 elections, disillusioned Democrats and moderate Independents stayed home or registered a protest vote against Obama and the Democrats.

They helped give control of the House and many state governments to conservative Republicans. This reinforced deadlock at the national level.

The House under Speaker John Boehner has obstructed the Obama administration at almost every turn being willing to bring government to a halt rather than cooperating with the president.

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has announced that the Republican priority is to defeat President Obama for re-election.

In 2010, the stay-at-homers and protest voters helped choose state governments that would control the reapportionment process based on new Census returns.

Traditionally, the party controlling the state government tries to create new districts favorable to its political interest. Even in Connecticut where Republicans are a minority, they are trying to move heavily Democratic Bridgeport out of the fourth district to ensure a Republican Congressional district.

Democrat James Himes owes his two elections largely to the pluralities he received in Bridgeport.

In Ohio, redistricting under a Republican state government forced Democrat Dennis Kucinich into a district with another progressive Democratic incumbent, and he has lost a primary election to her.

Republican state governments elected in 2010 have raised a false claim of widespread voter fraud to cover efforts to change voter identification and procedural laws in ways which would diminish the turn-out of normally Democratic constituencies among the poor and minorities.

In his State of the Union Message in 2010, President Obama warned that the so-called Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court would release huge amounts of unattributable money into campaign financing, undermining existing campaign finance laws, already weak at best.

Associate Justice Alito, one of the conservatives in the 5 to 4 majority in the case shook his head, "No, No" and mouthed "Not True."

But, as it has turned out, "Yes, Yes, True, True," President Obama had it right.

Regardless of who the Republicans nominate for president, Barack Obama's victory or defeat in November will be determined by the state of the economy and issues of war and peace.

The Democrats will have to engage in massive voter education and voter turn-out campaigns to hold the House. It may already be too late because legal challenges to the new voter registration laws take time and are decided in conservative courts.

The Republicans have an advantage as regards Senate races. The Constitution specifies that one-third the number of Senators be elected every two years. This year many more seats held by Democrats are up for election than those held by Republicans.

Early prediction: Barack Obama wins re-election by a narrow margin. Republicans win control of both houses of Congress, deadlocked government continues and citizen frustration mounts.